Understanding and insights into sports injury prevention and first aid courses

The core value of the "Sports Injury Prevention and First Aid Course" has never been to teach you the routine operations for dealing with skin injuries. It is essentially a "risk calibration course" for all sports participants - it can help ordinary enthusiasts avoid more than 90% of non-confrontational sports injuries. When a sudden injury occurs, at least 80% of well-intentioned secondary injuries can be avoided. In extreme cases, it can even save lives.

At first, I signed up for this course just to collect the credits for the public elective course. I originally thought that I would just study PPT in class and pass the test on "How to deal with bruises" and "Ice the sprained foot". Until something happened before the first practical class, my impression of this course was completely changed. Last week I went to an amateur basketball game with my friends. A young man grabbed a rebound and stepped on someone else's foot. He fell to the ground holding his ankle and was sweating. Without thinking, the teammates next to him squatted up and grabbed his ankle and rubbed it. He said, "It'll be good to stimulate blood flow." He was sent to the hospital for a X-ray. It turned out that it was just a mild avulsion fracture. He put a plaster on it and rested for two months, but the bone fragment was forced to shift due to the rubbing. Finally, he had to undergo a minor surgery to reset it.

Later, when we talked about this case in class, the teacher also specifically mentioned the current controversy about the treatment of acute injuries: many elders and even old-school coaches still say "knead the sprained foot to reduce swelling." This statement is not completely wrong, but the applicable scenario is confused - for the soreness and discomfort of chronic strain, massage can indeed promote circulation and relieve symptoms. However, when an acute closed injury first occurs, subcutaneous capillaries are rupturing and bleeding. The harder you rub, the more swollen you will be, and even the bone fragments that have not completely fallen off will be directly rubbed off. Nowadays, the mainstream recommendation in the sports medicine field is the POLICE principle (protection, appropriate weight-bearing, ice, compression, elevation) that is more suitable for ordinary enthusiasts. There are also many conservative scholars who believe that ordinary people cannot remember so many detailed rules. It is enough to use the most basic RICE principle (rest, ice, compression, elevation) correctly. In fact, neither view is right or wrong. The core bottom line is "Don't move blindly, don't apply heat, don't massage when you are injured."

I used to think that injury prevention was just a matter of sufficient warm-up. It wasn’t until the teacher played a slow-motion video of my daily running posture that I submitted in class. At three times the speed, I could clearly see that my knees were buckling inward when I landed every step, and my arches were subconsciously collapsing inward. The teacher pointed at the screen and laughed: "With your running posture, if you warm up for half an hour, you will definitely develop patella softening after three months of running." ”I didn't believe it at the time. After all, I had been running continuously for two months. Apart from the occasional soreness in my knees, I had no other discomfort. I thought it was a normal reaction after exercise. Later, according to what I learned in the class, I added 3 sets of clam poses before each run to activate the gluteus medius. The stride length was shortened from more than one meter before to about the same as shoulder width. After only three runs, the soreness and swelling in my knees disappeared. It was then that I realized that the so-called prevention is not to follow the warm-up process at all, but to first understand where your body has shortcomings.

By the way, many fitness bloggers on the Internet are now shouting that "standard movements will prevent injuries." The teacher in class also specifically discussed the controversy of this statement: There is a school of sports and human body science scholars who believe that there is no universal "standard movement". Everyone's bone structure, muscle strength, There are inherent differences in joint mobility. For example, some people are born with a small hip abduction angle. When doing deadlifts, forcing the hip angle to open according to universal standards can easily strain the sacroiliac joints. Instead of sticking to other people's "standards", it is better to pay more attention to your own body's feedback. If it hurts, stop and don't lift. No Pain No Gain” is used as a cover.

My previous knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation came from TV dramas, and I thought it was just a matter of pressing the chest twice and blowing two breaths. It wasn’t until I simulated the actual operation that I realized how difficult it was. The first time I pressed, I was afraid of breaking the manikin, but the strength was never enough. The manikin kept repeating "insufficient compression depth" mechanically. The teacher came over and pressed my shoulders, pressing down, and said half-jokingly: "You have to use enough force to break his ribs. When you get to the scene, it is common to break the ribs, which is better than losing the person." ”That time when I pressed the system prompt to pass, my arms shook for ten minutes, and then I really understood that first aid is not just a show, it really requires strength and judgment.

During class, another classmate muttered, saying, what's the use of learning all this? If something really happens, can't we just call 120? The teacher was not angry after hearing this, and just leaned on the edge of the podium and smiled: "You are right, everything we teach is to help the injured breathe more in the ten minutes before the ambulance comes. It is not for you to be doctors. If you can remember, 'Call 120 before emergency, don't mess with the unconscious injured,' then this lesson will be considered in vain." ”

Now, no matter whether I go hiking or playing ball, I always have a palm-sized first aid kit stuffed in my backpack. It contains disposable ice packs, elastic bandages, iodophor cotton pads, and a small card with the emergency phone numbers of three hospitals near my home. It's not that I'm expecting something to happen, it's that I really know that if I know a little more about this, I won't be so panicked when something happens, or even have good intentions but end up harming others. To put it bluntly, this course does not teach you how to deal with injuries at all. It teaches you how to get along well with your body. Don’t mistake ignorance for bravery, and don’t mistake recklessness for enthusiasm.